Principes sur l’Art des Accouchemens, par Demandes et Réponses, en faveur des sages-femmes de la campagne
Paris: Chez Méquignon l’aîné, Libraire, rue des Cordeliers, 1787.
A foundational late-Enlightenment obstetrical text by Jean-Louis Baudelocque (1745–1810), one of France’s most influential accoucheurs and the successor to André Levret as leading authority in the art of childbirth. This 1787 revised and enlarged government-authorized edition was designed as a didactic handbook for midwives of the countryside, written in question-and-answer format for practical instruction. It includes a remarkable series of folding engraved anatomical plates depicting the female pelvis, fetal positions, and mechanisms of delivery — engraved by Duhamel after drawings by Challié — all intended to make the study of childbirth more accessible outside Parisian hospitals. Baudelocque’s systematic approach emphasized anatomical precision and humane care, laying the pedagogical groundwork for modern obstetrics.
The work combines medical empiricism with Enlightenment ideals of public health, aiming to improve rural birth outcomes through state-sanctioned education. Its illustrations are among the clearest visualizations of fetal presentation and pelvic anatomy of the period, marking a crucial stage between earlier midwifery manuals and the nineteenth-century professionalization of obstetric science.
Condition & Binding: Contemporary full mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments with floral and urn tools, red morocco title label “PRINCIPE DES ACCOUCHEMENS.” Marbled endpapers (with 20th-century engraved bookplate of Dr. Maurice-Villaret, noted French neurologist). Moderate rubbing to boards; some chipping at spine head and joints starting but holding soundly. Front free endpaper with an early ink inscription in French. Interior very clean overall, with occasional mild foxing and faint water-staining to early leaves; plates bright and well-impressed. Overall- good. Item #690
Price: $300.00